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Wordless Wednesday- 2021 Year in Pictures Review
Tag: review
Christmas Gifts And Review
Well, hello there! Glad to see you’re still around. I went through a bit of a busy time and got a little out of practice from blogging. I did just pay for three more years of the blog though, so you’re stuck with me for at least that long. 🙂
It has been a whirlwind and I did learn a few things over the past year in terms of sewing. I love my serger! My MIL was right when she said it would be a game changer. I’m sewing things I never would have dared to sew before, including hoodies!
I’ve experimented with more fancy stitches, new patterns, and traveled with my serger! I started making A wardrobe for my office dolls, which has been surprisingly fun and stress relieving. Here are my latest creations. The top two are the Riley tank dress from Made for Mermaids and the bottom right are Kelli Kimono Robes, also from M4M. The bubble dresses are the Vada’s Bubble Dress from CKC patterns. I’ve been enjoying using them to try new techniques in a less stressful way.
Of course, there were some negatives. I developed tendinitis from scissor use, had quilt fails, and added some more projects to the WIP and naughty bin. Oh, and I trashed my iron very well. Tripped over the cord and whipped it point down into the floor. Apparently irons aren’t meant to show their insides like that…
Overall, the positives outweighed the negatives though, so that’s always good.
I have a couple of goals this year. Making pants is one of them, as is figuring out undergarment patterns (don’t worry Dad, I won’t put pictures of the finished products on the blog.)
I joined the 52 Week Sewing Challenge on Facebook, which gives you a different theme or idea to sew each week. Each week is sponsored by a couple of different sewing related shops and when you post what you’ve sewn, you’re entered to win the giveaway from the sponsor that week. The cool thing is as long as you post something finished, you’re entered to win, so if you desperately need to finish a specific project, you have that option. The Week 1 challenge was to organize your sewing space and it was fun to see all the different ideas people had. Here is my before and after of my sewing table. The rest of the space is still a work in progress.
If you’re interested and on Facebook, you can look it up by that name and join the group. You have to answer some questions to join, but they’re all basic. It’s been fun so far. This week was UFO/WIP finishing week and I finished the owl quilt I was working on starting at New Year’s Eve.
It is from the book Rainbow Quilts For Scrap Lovers by Judy Gautier and is called “Owls Well That Ends Well.” Isn’t it cute? These are all from scraps, except the white, which needed to be from yardage. I used up a whole bunch of fabrics in it though. It’s backed with a purple and blue tye dye batik and gave me a bit of trouble. My sewing machine tension is off somewhere and the thread is misbehaving severely. The quilt looks cute though, just don’t look at the back seam…
I made a lot of our Christmas presents this year and it has been ridiculously hard to keep them a secret. Since the summer, I had been working on a traditional Finnish Costume for my Mom and will share that in another post as it was very interesting to do. It was my dad’s idea, but the whole family was in on it. 🙂
Another present I made for my Mom was this quilt, which I have been working on since last Christmas. I have enough fabric to make one for myself as well.
Here’s some pictures.
It’s a modified Shining Star pattern from one of my scrap quilts books. I added sashing too it, as I thought it needed a little something extra. It’s tied with buttons and the background of the squares is music fabric. The backing is a plain red and the binding is a glittery white and gold plaid fabric. I got super fancy and made my own bias binding.
Here’s some more closeups of my favorite stars.
I have heard that she likes it! 🙂
My friend K used the fish leather from the Quilt Expo last year to make a wallet for her dad. She said it was pretty easy to work with, so I decided to be brave and got some to play with this year. The end result were two little belt bags for my younger brother and his girlfriend! They are both salmon leather and from Fiskur Leather. The owners were super helpful in helping me figure out what would work best to sew it- polyester thread and a leather needle. I’m pretty proud of them. They’re meant to look a little rustic to match their characters. I used frog clasps to close them.
Their unit colors are purple and black, so I thought that this combo would be cool. I have also heard that they liked their things as well. The fish leather was pretty easy to sew with. It was more complicated to figure out the pouches with no pattern and with limited amounts of the leather. Sewed together fine though.
One of my goals for this year is to use up some more fabric. To that end, I used up my smaller fleece scraps by sewing up mittens and ear warmers for an organization called Night Angels. They work with victims of human trafficking and have a community outreach program. My work was making some Christmas bags for this program, so these were added to the presents. Here’s the prettiest ones:
I did buy some fleece remnants to make sure I would have enough, but they have all been used up. I used the last bits to make sleeping bags for the office dolls. Someone requested beds for them, but I don’t have room for furniture.
I painted these ornaments for my boss and the administrative staff at work. They each got a little set of three ornaments. I don’t have the best picture of them, but here is one of them.
I was gifted this lovely set by my MIL, who made it in one of her embroidery classes. It includes an apron, a pot holder, and a kitchen towel.
I’m sure to be sewing a bunch more things this year and am going to be taking on a few of my sewing fears, so it would be an interesting time. Let me know if there’s anything you’d like to learn about!
Have a creative year!
Wordless Wednesday- Photo Review 2019
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December
Adventures In Canning
Every time I have tried to can things recently, I have been thwarted by life! It’s been very frustrating. I’m hoping to get some more of the jams canned this Friday. We have a house work weekend planned, so then I won’t mind too much if the kitchen gets a little sticky. We can just clean it right up!
Some of the fruits I have waiting to be jam are strawberries, rhubarb, and apricots. I might pick up some more pomegranate juice too and try some jellies. I meant to make Jasmine Tea Jelly for my FIL for Father’s Day, but it never quite got made. Maybe I can get it done for Christmas.
I have made one jam so far and it was the Plum Cardamom jam that I fell in love with last year. This year I tripled the batch and didn’t bother straining it, just blended it with a stick blender. I think it worked just fine. The original recipe is from the Small Jars, Big Flavors book, but I only sort of followed it. I ended up using the old school method for one cup sugar to one cup fruit. It was still so good, that I was licking the ladle. 🙂 I ended up with 13 half pints of jam. I might not be as possessive this year. Last year I only had 8 jars and I had 4 of them myself. 🙂 Here is the jam, pictured with my next two canning experiments.
I ran out of cucumbers for my pickles, so may make some more. Some of them went bad before I could get to them. These are Hot Garlic Pickles from the Taste of Home Canning magazine. I made them last year and they were a hit. I want to make some plain garlic pickles too and some more squash pickles. (Don’t tell anyone, but my Dad ate zucchini voluntarily!! Oops…. 😉 ) I have to have enough pickles for future pickle trays, after all. I ended up with two jars of pickles.
The third other jar is pickled red onions! I love them on sandwiches, so thought I should have some. I haven’t tried them yet, but I think they look super pretty!
My friend K and I got together and made the Husbands play video games and snuggle the dog while we canned tomatoes over Labor Day. We ended up with probably 40 lbs of tomatoes? We made Zesty Salsa from the Ball Blue Book, and Roasted Garlic Pasta/Pizza sauce and Spicy Sicilian Pasta/Pizza sauce, I believe from the Better Homes canning magazine.
K took home half of them and some of the tomatoes. The salsa had some garden peppers and tomatoes. She brought a whole bag of mixed hot peppers, including habeneros and cherry bomb peppers, so it might be super spicy again. I’m excited to try it!
She canned the rest of her tomatoes, and I tried out our new dehydrator to make sundried tomatoes for the freezer. I cover them in olive oil and they keep for about 6 months in the freezer? To be honest, I have kept them for longer than that and they do fine. I didn’t quite get the consistency right, as I didn’t quite know how to make the temperature increase in the machine. Now I know and I want to try to dry some herbs next.
Don’t they look so pretty? I added some basil, oregano, and garlic too them before they were dried. The house smelled amazing!
My garden hasn’t been as successful as I wish it was. It looks pretty sad right now. I have to try digging the radishes and carrots. They were both small when I tried before. I was sad. Next year, we’ll have to try some different things.
My strawberries are still producing though and if the squirrels haven’t stolen my poblano peppers yet, I should have two out there. We also have some more purple peppers started. I think I might need to read some more garden planning books or something to figure out how to be more productive with it. Next year, I would also like to add the third bed, which might be partially herbs, and actually cage the tomatoes. They were unwieldy again this year and it was very annoying.
Back to canning talk… I have a new canning magazine (Better Homes and Gardens- Can It! Freeze It!) which has some very interesting looking recipes in it, such as Vanilla-Caramel Butter, Vanilla Citrus Plums, Brandied Strawberry jam, Roasted Tomatillo-Corn Salsa, and Sage Peach Jam.
I’m not sure exactly how many more things I will get done. I want to try some wine jelly and a whiskey ginger jelly too, but those I can really do any time.
I’m going to take Fancy’s example and go to bed to dream of new and interesting canning options though. I’ll leave you with a picture of my prized possession: a large jar of Penzey’s Sandwich Sprinkle! The Husband just shook his head, but I know he’s excited about it too. 😉
Monthly Review
I’ve got something up my sleeve for Monday or Tuesday (heh, heh, sewing pun) but wanted to get back on track with my reviews. It helps me keep accountable and on track with my goals. February has been kind of a slower month. I have had a bit of trouble with some motivation and some of the ever present scheduling concerns. Also, sudden dental issues, which always complicate things. Fancy hasn’t been helping either. She’s been very snuggly.
Overall, I have been pretty good at trying to really think through my sewing projects. I have put a 6 month fabric buying ban on myself until June. Gifts obviously don’t count. 😉 The other caveat is that if I need a specific fabric to finish a specific project, I can buy the fabric for that project. Otherwise some things would just pile up more until June.
My organization adventures for the month have made me aware of just how much fabric I have. Most of it has a plan for it, but there is no reason I need that much! It was quite a sobering thing. I’ve been re-evaluating my wardrobe too and have decided to repurpose or remake some of the things that really don’t fit quite how I want them to. I have already taken apart a couple of skirts that don’t fit well and added the fabric back to my stash. I have also started a list of all the things in my project box, with notes about what is needed to finish them.
So far for sewing this month, I have mended a long sleeved sweater and added buttons to a bag and a 3/4 sleeved sweater. All of these have been in my UFO or mending box for quite some time. I also learned that my sewing machine will gather fabric for my if my bobbin and top thread are at different tensions. This made sewing some gathered doll clothes a bit easier.
There have been a lot of doll clothes made in the last two months, but as I have recently acquired two more dolls from a friend’s daughter, I will need to make some more.
Can’t have naked dolls sitting around my office! Speaking of my office, I switched offices with a colleague into a bit of a bigger office and it was amazing how much stuff I had ended up squeezing in my littler one. It took me about 4-5 hours to reorganize and I need a couple of small things, like a game storage unit and a little table for next to my chair. It will be fun to see the kid client reactions to it. The adults will take it in stride, I’m sure. So the next time I take a picture of doll wardrobe at work, it will be on a different chair. 🙂
I have made some more leggings for myself this month, because you can never have enough comfy pants! One of them, the polar bears didn’t quite work, due to the stretch, but I can fix the waistband and it should be fine.
I don’t remember if I mentioned this amazing cutting mat that the Husband got me for Christmas, but it’s making cutting things out so much easier when I’m upstairs. I love it!
I have also made a pair of black pants, but apparently this month, have a tendency to want to write about the pants I currently have on! These ones are soft, black, French Terry, and will pass for work pants, even though I feel like I’m wearing pjs. Instead, how about a picture of my bright pink joggers? I was wearing them the last time I wanted to write about them. They are quite obnoxious, but I love them. The Husband won’t give me his opinion, as he is a smart man.
They are made from my beloved Linen Lounger pattern for Patterns for Pirates and are cotton blend french terry from Girl Charlee. I’m not really enthused about trying new pants patterns, when I like the fit of this one so well. Since my blue jean leggings need to be mended though, I have plans to make a skinnier, actual pant pattern to replace them if needed. I also do need a couple of different pairs of nicer work type pants.
One other thing I needed was a couple of nicer sweaters to wear with my pants and pretty skirts. I went through my sweaters and gave a bunch away, but now needed replacements. I like to dress up a little for intakes and not wear the dino leggings until a couple sessions in. 🙂 Enter this pattern; the Fall In Love Sweater by Ellie and Mac.
I quite enjoy it and it makes me feel super pretty and polished. For future versions, I may size up about a half, as it occasionally feels a little tight. It doesn’t accentuate all my bumps and lumps too much though, so I may not if the fabric is stretchy.
I made this second version as a short sleeved version. It needs bands, as the fabric likes to misbehave and the bottom hem is a little short, but it looks lovely on me. At least I think it does. This pattern fits me better than my normal go to short sleeve pattern, so I will definitely be making more. It has set in sleeves, not raglan or baseball style, so it looks a little more professional.
I’ve also made a very long and cozy fleece sweater to work in the basement in, but it’s come in very handy for our recent cold snap. I think my sewing was more intentional this month. I tried to focus on the gaps in my wardrobe. My drawer is still very full, so I need to do another clear out soon. I have a horror of giving away the “perfect” shirt, but there are a bunch that I just don’t wear!
My Sewing goals for this month include a neutral grey Cocoon Cardigan to fill that gap and to try the fancier pants pattern. I also want to continue to organize and purge my stash, as well as work on some quilts and UFO’s. I have a pattern for a “Fairy Sweater” which is a cascade type sweater that I have a lighter watercolor print to try to use up, but that may wait until closer to summer.
Now to switch gears to food. We had a lot of new food this month, due to the party. I think that I missed a bunch of pictures of meals that were not party food. We did have a lot of Chinese food this month, so you may not see it for a little while. Not that we don’t like it, but there’s only so much stir fry type things I can eat. Here were some of our favorites:
Lion’s Head meatballs
West Lake Beef Soup
Chicken Marsala
Wonton Soup
Fried Dessert Wontons! They were from this website: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/03/cinnamon-sugar-cream-cheese-wonton-nutella-dulce-de-leche.html
They were so good! I didn’t make a dipping sauce for them. We never have Nutella in the house and I have both spoons and no will power.
The Husband had the play auditions and production meetings this week, so we had leftovers from last week, including a new recipe from The Wooden Spoon cookbook. It was not our favorite. Basically hamburger, tomato sauce, and taco seasoning with shell noodles. The Husband added a lot of cheese, but I still think it was a little bland.
One thing we did like this week was Nancy Fuller’s Creamy Stovetop Mac and Cheese from this month’s Food Network. I was hungry after work on Thursday and ended up making it at 10 pm. It was good late night snacking food though. I used a little of the dragon pepper hot sauce in it. Mmmm!
Misses for the month were the fried pork ribs and the clementine cakes. The ribs were just super annoying to fry and frustrating as I couldn’t taste them to adjust any seasoning. The cakes were a little dense for me, even remembering they were supposed to be a pound cake recipe. I need to practice cupcakes more. I’m sure no one will object to trying them. 🙂
Food goals this month are to use my spiralizer attachment and the Instant Pot at least once. Also, be more creative with lunches and get the Husband more involved in planning. His choices were very good ones this month.
Mental health related, I also want to get back to reading before bed this month. I’m having a lot of trouble shutting my brain down to sleep and I know that will help. I went through a rough patch of not wanting to actually do anything and I am working on not getting to that point again.
Of course, taking Fancy to interesting places is another goal. We went to an informational meeting on therapy dog training today and the information is good, but she definitely needs more training first. I’m sure she won’t mind.
These goals should be pretty manageable, I think. Hopefully once the play starts getting going, we can get somewhat of a schedule going. Wish us luck!
Thoughtful Thursday- Year End Review
Fancy’s pictures
Unexpected beauty
Exciting events and adventures!
Yearly Recipe Review
Here goes my last review! It will be back to regular posting for the rest of the week.
The Husband’s favorite recipe was the Thai Sweet Hot Duck, hand’s down. I’m a little nervous to make it again for fear I will mess it up!
We might have it for Valentine’s Day though. We never go out, just eat a fancy dinner at home.
My favorite new recipe was the coconut veggie curry.
It was so comforting. I need to investigate more veggie options for my lunches.
The French onion grilled cheese sandwiches were also a surprise hit. Messy, but delicious.
I liked the marshmallow ice cream, but the Husband didn’t. We both liked the chocolate ice cream.
I did make two really good chocolate cupcakes, the blackberry ones and my birthday cupcakes.
I normally don’t really like chocolate cupcakes, but these recipes were really moist and delicious.
Of course, the dragon bundt cake was delicious and I was excited to use the pan. It wasn’t too bad to clean or get the cake out either.
Fancy liked all her treats. I couldn’t tell which one she liked the best. She does get so excited when I pull out the frozen sweet potato sticks. 🙂
Misses were the chicken risotto, a couple of stir fry experiments, and the cheese and mushroom souffle.
I used a total of 113 new cookbooks! My idea of sections went a little wonky because there were multiple recipes in each section that I wanted to try. Overall though, I did use new cookbooks and recipes in the spirit of the challenge. I have a bunch of cookbooks left to use.
There are a few cookbooks that I think I may need to just get rid of. The Microwave Chinese Cookbook scares both of us, so it will go. Basically, any cookbook that doesn’t make me want to cook with it should probably go. There’s no sense in holding on to them, if I won’t use them. It’ll make more room for new ones! 🙂
What I learned:
– Trust my instincts. I know how to cook and bake and if something doesn’t look right, it might not be.
– Up the spices! We like a lot of flavor. Part of this might be to measure things out for a little bit to make sure I’m eye measuring correctly.
– Have fun with it! Play with my food/recipes more.
– Try new things.
– Meal plan. Even if it’s enough meals planned for the week, but not assigned to the specific day.
– Involve the Husband. He can learn to do more of the prep and try new things as well. Plus, it would be fun to have some help.
Goals:
My goals aren’t that different from last year when I started the blog. I’m debating adding some more social media and trying to grow my readers, but it makes me a little nervous. We’ll see how I feel in a little bit.
So here are my overall goals for the year:
– Take pictures of everything food related. Figure out my photo editing.
– Meal plan consistently.
– Try new techniques.
– Have a Chopped themed dinner party, even though it’s slighty terrifying.
– Actually measure my own recipes, so I can recreate them.
That’s probably enough goals for the year. I don’t want to get too crazy with planning. Let me know if there’s anything else I should do differently, or more you’d like to see!
Stay tuned for a regular Wordless Wednesday post! Have a great day!
Yearly Review- Canning and Gardening
Hello again! I thought I would separate out my canning list from my recipe list to try and make it not so long. I probably have one more review post and then it will be back to the normal posting schedule.
We were going to go to the zoo today, but I woke up with a sore neck and shoulder. Too much relentless partying! 🙂
Canning Review:
So I wanted to get more canning done than I actually was able to do. I still have the whole canning tomatoes in the freezer. I think I’ll just chop them up and use them whole.
Here is what I did get canned this year.
Apple sauce, two batches from The Ball Blue Book. I have no pictures of the second one for some reason. One batch of applesauce was canned and one is in the freezer. The Husband only likes the second one. The first one was too smooth. It works very well for cooking though and I like it, so all is not lost.
Tea Blends! I’m going to count these as canning because they are in canning jars. I made them for my vending event and when they didn’t sell, my craft ladies happily snapped them up for Christmas. It was so much fun to put them together and I still have a bunch of the materials, so I would like to make some more up for me as well.
Pickles from The Art of Preserving. I didn’t like this recipe, but the ones with extra garlic went over very well. I will try more pickles with a different recipe for next year.
I also had my first burst jar in the canning pot. It was scary, but not as messy as it could have been.
Rhubarb marmalade from Taste of Home Canning 2012. This was delicious. I quite enjoy it on toast and on yogurt.
Strawberry Marmalade from Taste of Home 2012. This is also delicious and I like in lots of different ways.
Rhubarb BBQ sauce from the An Oregon Cottage website. I liked this, but it’s possible the Husband is allerfic to rhubarb, so I haven’t used it since. This was a freezer recipe, it was too low of a PH level to safely can.
Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate from Ball Canning online. This is lovely. I wanted to make some blackberry as well, but didn’t get to it. I have some blackberries in the freezer, so may try it. The Husband likes it with Sprite. He was excited to have our own lemonade.
Gardening Review:
My herbs did very well. I was able to move the rosemary plant inside even though it got caught in a snowstorm. I was excited by how pretty this picture looked and it was also exciting to get to cut my own fresh herbs for foods. My only problem was keeping them watered enough. My work schedule was not conducive to watering schedules.
Strawberries! I waged a war with the squirrels and the ants to get some strawberries for us. We actually got a bunch this year and I’m hoping the plants will survive to be used next year. They are protected in the garage.
We got one zucchini! I brought it up with us when we went up to visit my parents and we had it sautéed with other veggies. Sadly, the plant didn’t survive much after this. It was not happy in a pot.
Gardening Goals and What I Learned:
Next year we need to get the raised bed set. Now that we know how much work it will be, we’ll set aside a gardening weekend early. We’re thinking of putting raised planter boxes by the garage with berries in them. Perhaps the ants will not get them this year after all.
What I learned was that consistent watering needs to be a priority. Also, learning what is up with my tomatoes to stop end blossom rot would be good. I can’t stop it, it seems, but am hoping that when they are in an actual bed with tomato cages they will be less prone to it.
I am not good with cucumbers either. The only one I got this year was bitter and inedible. Blech.
Canning Goals:
Try a pomegranate or wine jelly this winter. Put aside a few full weekends for canning. Prep everything one day and can the next.
Learning: Smaller goals? Make sure I have the time to properly deal with my produce.
I hope you enjoyed this review. It’s a good feeling to have these things prepared to use in the winter time.
Yearly Review- Wordless Wednesday style
For this part of the review, here is my favorite picture from each month of this year. I started this in February last year. Do you see your favorites? 🙂
February 2017
March 2017
April 2017
May 2017
June 2017
July 2017
August 2017
September 2017
October 2017
November 2017
December 2017
Yearly Review- Sewing and Crafting
It has been a crazy year! I switched jobs twice, lost my serger pedal, but found it yesterday (!!), made a dress in 5 hours, found a favorite dress pattern, and used up an entire notebook.
I’ve watched multiple seasons of weird British shows (Death in Paradise, Doctor Blake, Great British Baking Show) and some Project Runway. Also, some action shows like The Flash, and Wynona Erp, much to the Husband’s dismay. 🙂
My space is getting organized, slowly but surely.
All my larger scraps are now housed in two containers. I have a shoebox style container full of tiny scraps as well, but they get lost if they are in with the bigger pieces.
Umm.. there’s a slight chance I need to stop saving scraps, or work exclusively in scraps for a bit…
I made about a million tea wallets, which does help with the scrap piles. They’ve also been selling a lot on Etsy all of a sudden. My tea wallets are in a brick and mortar store as well, Hawthorne and Vine, which makes me more confident when trying other avenues in the future.
My Etsy and vending events went decently well. I’ve been better about posting to Twinflower Fancies and am investigating other options for advertising.
One of my favorite clothing makes for the year was my Dita Dress, otherwise known as the “5 hour dress.” I did make some modifications to the pattern, but got a ton of compliments on it from complete strangers. It’s very exciting to say “Thanks, I made it!”
We discovered that Fancy is not a fan of my dress form unless it is dressed. Silly dog.
I also made two other versions of my strawberry dress, after finally remembering which pattern it was. I like them all, but was so pleased at how the lace worked out on my rose dress. I think it’s my favorite. I wore it in my professional head shot for work too. 🙂
Quilt-wise, my absolute favorite quilt was this rainbow one for a friend’s baby.
I love this quilt. Maybe that’s what I can use my scraps for! I’ll make a version to keep. It does use tiny pieces if I make the 5 inch squares first. Plus, I’m fairly certain I have some extra black squares somewhere. The Husband is shaking his head at me and suggesting that I should maybe finish the projects I have started for other people first… Silly Husband, deadlines are for other people… (He’s probably right though.)
I also took a huge leap and made the pictures for my office. I was nervous about putting my almost non-existent drawing skills out for display, but was inspired by someone who repeatedly makes me draw things to “help build my confidence in drawing skills.” In the end, I’m glad I ended up choosing the songs and images I did. I’ve had positive responses from people and take pride in embracing my space as my own.
I found a source for my quilts, since they don’t meet Project Linus requirements. My friend has an OT room for kids with emotional disturbances and they will be getting some of them. I have one completed and two tops waiting to be finished.
I used 7 craft books. I added a few more in the process, but have tried to pull patterns or books that I am not using to be donated. I actually was able to connect through the bellydance world with a high school sewing club and they will be getting these items. The box of fabric I had for them is getting bigger and bigger. I’m excited for it to go to kids who are just getting into sewing.
Overall, I completed 67 total projects. This did not include actual numbers of tea wallets. I lost track somewhere in one of the rushes. If you know any tea drinkers, send them my way. I’m sure I can find one for just about anyone.
And what did you learn?
Things I’ve learned from this year is that I don’t really like working with paper very much, despite having a bunch of scrapbooking stuff. There is not one paper project on this entire year of blogging. I’ve brought a bunch of it to my office and most of it will probably make its way there.
I need to have a firm hand with the supplies that I keep. I have random craft supplies, Christmas ornament supplies, and beading supplies that I rarely use. Is it really worth having it take up the space, when it could go to someone who would use it?
Organization is my least favorite part, well, along with ironing, of the whole process. Losing my serger pedal is the perfect example of the reasons why I need to get this under control.
Do you know where it was?
It was staring me in the eye from behind a box of elastic and hidden by my thread boxes. The thread boxes that I go to every time I need new thread… that sit next to my sewing area in the basement. That I swear I searched. I’m a bit annoyed with myself to say the least. My dad is going to say “if it was a snake, it would have bit you” when he reads that.
I may make this picture my background screen on my Ipad if I’m having trouble getting to the organization bit later. Maybe it’ll shame me into actually doing it.
Speaking of actually doing things, here’s my yearly goals.
Yearly goals:
* Continue blogging both successes and failures.
* Be more involved in the online sewing community for support and growth.
* Continue to develop my Etsy store.
* Learn to take better pictures.
* Learn to use (and not be scared of) the serger. It dishonors my friend’s memory to have it just sit there and not use it.
* Get halfway through my UFO boxes.
* Donate items I am not using/that don’t work for me.
* Be fearless with new projects and techniques.
Whew. That’s a lot of words. Here’s a new cute sleeping dog picture, if you’ve made it this far.
I hope you’ve enjoyed coming along on my journey with me! I know I’ve learned a lot, maybe I have inspired you too!
Here’s to another year of creativity and adventures!